America’s Molech Worship, part 1: Establishment of a Religion
Ryan Cox • September 22, 2021
America’s Molech Worship, part 1: Establishment of a Religion
Leviticus 18:21, “You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the I Am.”
Leviticus 20:2, “Any man from the sons of Israel or from the aliens sojourning in Israel who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.”
Jeremiah 32:35, “They built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of Ben-hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I had not commanded them nor had it entered My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”
Offering one’s child as a sacrifice in the name of idolatry was considered sinful, profaning the name of God, and worthy of the death penalty.
Why? Because the killing of children is a direct assault on the image and person of God. As humanity is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1-2; James 3:9), any abuse of that image is regarded as a personal attack on God Himself (Genesis 9:6). The acceptance of such a practice in a culture is the direct result of the evolutionizing of that culture and the rejection of Genesis and the Bible as historical and authoritative.
The attack on God’s image includes children, for see how beautifully and reverently the Scriptures describe human life:
“¹³
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
¹⁶Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16)
These profound statements about life are
ALL while the
child is still in the womb! And yet, over four decades ago the Supreme Court of the United States decided to bring our nation into compliance with Molech worship – the sacrificing of children through abortion in the name of choice (idolatry), convenience (idolatry), and career (also idolatry). Those three C’s all place something, namely the individual, above God and serve oneself instead of the Creator.
However, this was not always the case in America.
When the thirteen states won their independence from Great Britain, they applied English common law in regards to abortion. James Wilson, a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention, stated in his 1790 Of the Natural Rights of Individuals, “With consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human life, from its commencement to its close, is protected by the common law. In the contemplation of the law, life begins when the infant is first able to stir in the womb. By the law, life is protected not only from immediate destruction, but from every degree of actual violence”.¹
The importance of this viewpoint by one of the framers of the Constitution is vital to our current legal system for two reasons.
1.) Under the laws of the United States, human life should be protected, even while still in the mother’s womb! Some opponents claim that Wilson’s statement says life doesn’t begin until around 15 to 20 weeks, which therefore makes the decision of when life begins arbitrary and a matter of opinion. That is a perversion of Wilson’s statements. In his day, the soonest a mother knew for sure she was pregnant was when she could feel the baby move. What Wilson was therefore saying is that as soon as we know a lady is pregnant, that life is protected by law. Today, through modern technology we can know even sooner as our ability to detect and protect life is only increasing.
2.) As a framer of the Constitution, Wilson’s statements reverberate through the American legal system as he declares the right to life, even while in the womb, is Constitutionally protected based on common law. The Constitution of the United States established a federal system of government in which the common and state laws of the land are maintained to the point they do not conflict with federal law (Article VI of the Constitution). Does that mean the federal government can change those common and state laws and decide when life begins and is protected? NO! The 9th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution specifically declare that those decisions are to be left to the people and their state governments. But even if a state decided to legalize abortion, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution declares in Section 1, “…nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Therefore, the only legal means by which an abortion can be carried out is if the baby has committed a crime worthy of the state’s death penalty and was found guilty in a jury trial (the baby’s 5th, 6th, and 7th Amendment rights).
This is important because of the gross abuse of power and disregard of the Constitution by the Supreme Court in the 1973 Roe v. Wade
decision.
In 1821, Connecticut became the first state with a statute criminalizing abortion. Throughout the 1820s, more states either codified or expanded English common law to protect the lives of the unborn. By 1900, every state in the US had abortion legislation.
In 1973, only 4 states (New York, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii) had legalized abortion upon request.
The Supreme Court, however, changed everything.
In June of 1969, Norma McCorvey found that she was pregnant with her third child. Upon the urging of her “friends”, she attempted to obtain a legal abortion by falsely claiming she had been raped. When she could not produce a police report supporting her claim, she attempted to obtain an illegal abortion. This failed as the facility to which she had planned to go was shut down by police.
McCorvey eventually gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who was then adopted. However, while she was still pregnant, attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington believed they had the perfect subject for a lawsuit. In 1970, they filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas on behalf of their client, alias Jane Roe. Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade represented the State of Texas in the case.
On June 17th, the three-judge panel unanimously declared Texas’s abortion laws unconstitutional. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court as was another case, Doe v. Bolton, in which Georgia’s abortion laws were challenged.
In both cases, the women being represented (Norma McCorvey in Roe
and Sandra Cano in Doe) were lied to and deceived by their lawyers. In an affidavit filed on June 11, 2003, McCorvey stated, “For their part, my lawyers lied to me about the nature of abortion. Weddington convinced me, ‘It’s just a piece of tissue. You just missed your period.’”² She also claimed that she signed the initial affidavit without reading it and “was never invited into court. I never testified. I was never present before any court on any level, and I was never at any hearing on my case…I found out about the decision from the newspaper, just like the rest of the country.”³
On January 22, 1973 the court ruled in a 7-2 decision in favor of Roe and Doe, declaring that the States cannot prohibit later terminations of pregnancy when the life or health of a woman is in danger. However, the meaning of a mother’s “health” has very wide parameters. As stated in Doe, “We agree…that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age – relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.”⁴
Therefore, according to the court, if a mother feels she will have emotional issues from the pregnancy, she is legally allowed to have the baby killed while in her womb. Is there any way our nation can be pardoned for such wickedness?
“Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now and take note, and seek in her open squares. If you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her.” ~ Jeremiah 5:1
End notes:
1. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/of-the-natural-rights-of-individuals/
2. Affidavit of Norma McCorvey (June 11, 2003), in McCorvey v. Hill
(U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, Civil Action No. 3-3690-B and No. 3-3691-C. http://www.endroe.org/roebio.aspx#_ftn6
3. Ibid.
4. 410 U.S. 179 Doe v. Bolton
(No. 70-40), Jan. 22, 1973. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/410/179
One of the most important ministry focuses CTF has is the Sharp Institute for Biblical Worldview Studies (SIBWS). Dr. Sharp began this division of our ministry in 2005 because of a specific call from the Lord. As Doc would share often, the Lord challenged him. He saw that even with all of the programming and books sold in the church programs that we did year after year, and as impactful and Kingdom-building as that was, when we left there was most often no one in the local body to continue our message and teaching on Genesis 1-12 and its importance to the Gospel. The Lord directed Doc to multiply the teaching and mission of CTF in the local body. So Doc heard the call and accepted the challenge, as he always did from the Lord, and IBWS was born. Doc called a few people to join him for study that first meeting of the IBWS at a dude ranch in north Texas. I was one of those first invited to come and study, as many of you know from my personal testimony shared over the years. It was Providence that directed me to this Cadre study group and laid the foundation for me to be in the position I am today. As the four of us in that first group studied, the Lord connected, emphasized, and exhorted the importance of Genesis in our worldviews. When I left that first meeting, I was full and ready to teach and preach what the Lord had just challenged and changed in my worldview. Now, 21 years later, Doc’s original calling and direction for the IBWS continues. Over the course of these years, 146 members have completed the training. Each one has been challenged to use what they have learned wherever the Lord places them in ministry. For some it is from the pulpit, others are in vocational student ministry, and some have been called to primarily impact their own families with worldview training. We send them off with all of our outlines and presentation slides to help accomplish this task. It is quite exciting to look back and see what the Lord has done through this endeavor. Ryan and I literally might not be where we are today if we hadn’t first studied in our Cadre program. When Doc retired and passed the mantle of the presidency to me in 2018, it seemed fitting to honor his enduring call to Biblical worldview training by renaming the Institute to bear his name. So now it will forever be called the Sharp Institute for Biblical Worldview Studies. Over the course of its history we have had consistent numbers of invited members desiring to learn more of the Word of God. However, we have never had a consistent location to provide the training. It’s through the generous offerings of borrowed church facilities that we have been able to continue SIBWS without a home of its own. It is time to change that. We are in need of our own facility to house the SIBWS presently and for future expansion of this CTF ministry division. We have been pursuing different options, from renovating our present office building to the purchasing of additional space. Providence would have it that 2 doors north of our offices there is a property for sale. It is a great fit for the SIBWS Cadre program needs, and it would also provide room for our books and resources department to expand out of its present cramped space. It has a room for a training facility, a kitchen (needing renovation), dining room options, possible sleeping quarters for a Cadre member in need, 3 bathrooms and a shower, parking out back (which we have been blessed to utilize for years by permission), and the afore mentioned room for our books and resources department. We have no idea how we could ever afford such a property without the Lord’s help, as we are devoted to being as debt free as possible moving forward in this ministry. In the midst of seeking the Lord for this need to be met, He has already sent us a generous offer of a $100,000 matching gift toward the purchase of a property , even if the building up the block is not the one. Truly, our financial position has never been more blessed at any other time in our history than at present, being completely debt free. So, I share all of this to ask for your prayers as we move forward to find a solution to our need of a home for the SIBWS and it’s continued effectiveness for the Kingdom. Also lift up the matching gift offer: I must exhort you to seek the Lord if you are one to help us do what, at this moment seems impossible, to purchase property without incurring debt . The mission of CTF is accomplished month in and month out with the exceeding blessings of churches, family members, and individuals that support us. The Lord’s faithfulness through all these years is unmistakable and we look forward to seeing Him do more of the impossible. May the Lord bless, keep, and challenge you for His Kingdom!
The First Prayer In Congress by T.H. Matteson, 1848